Software like Windows movie maker - I need subsitute for the windows default one

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There are lots of movie softwares out there, some of which are simple encoders, some full fledged editing softwares. So I guess it all comes down to a few questions:

1. What is the main-functionality that you're looking for (just encoding, editing, all?)
2. Is the only output format you're looking for DVD?
3. What are you willing to spend?

Personally I've tried many different solutions over the years...some more expensive than others. In the end I liked the following the best (side note: I don't do a lot of editing, I'm mostly interesting in encoding)...

1. Ulead DVD MovieFactory - awesome stuff. Ulead was bought by Corel a while back, so you will find the infos to this and other products here
2. TMPGs stuff (Pegasys) - the DVD Author and TMPGEnc programs are awesome, find more about those here
3. Nero Vision - the big plus is that I comes with the Nero Burning Rom software which is pretty standard these days...

After those there are numerous other programs I tried...too many to list here...

1. put images I have jpgs, and add audio mp3,wav to it. Just like a slide show.

2. I believe output is .avi for this video i will create.

3. turn this .avi into dvd format by burning it onto a dvd disc and be able to play this disc in any dvd player. I tried Windows Movie maker and when I converted from avi to dvd, the quality was pretty bad. I used a third party software to burn avi to dvd but windows movie maker by itself didnt help the cause as I didnt get the avi right. I had to change from wmv to avi thru other software.

Thanks for the post. If Nero can do what i want, then that would be perfect. I have heard a lot of good things about Nero.

1. put images I have jpgs, and add audio mp3,wav to it. Just like a slide show.

2. I believe output is .avi for this video i will create.

3. turn this .avi into dvd format by burning it onto a dvd disc and be able to play this disc in any dvd player. I tried Windows Movie maker and when I converted from avi to dvd, the quality was pretty bad. I used a third party software to burn avi to dvd but windows movie maker by itself didnt help the cause as I didnt get the avi right. I had to change from wmv to avi thru other software.

Thanks for the post. If Nero can do what i want, then that would be perfect. I have heard a lot of good things about Nero.

If that's "all" you're doing you should have a look at Microsoft PhotoStory 3 as well, it's free as well and probably exactly what you're looking for (although you might have to do some recoding afterwards as well)!